The picture below is an abstraction of a section of the trunk of an eucalyptus tree in the Veale Gardens section of the Adelaide parklands in South Australia. It was  made using  an old Leica rangefinder camera from the 1980s ---- a M4-P with a 50mm Summicron prime lens.   This  very basic and simple film camera (manual focus, no light meter)  is the complete opposite to  the modern technology of contemporary digital cameras (Sony, Canon, Nikon).  

I  had some time on my hands that afternoon, so I  wandered around looking at the tracks of the various eucalypts.  I was looking for the possibilities for abstraction.  The colours of this  particular  trunk caught my eye. 

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The picture below is a snap of some  tree roots in a dry  creek bed on the eastern side of  the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges  in South Australia in 2021.  We had traveled on the gravel Arkaroola-Junta Rd along the eastern edge of the ranges,  then turned into the North Flinders Rd  passed Wertaloona Station, then  crossed the Wearing Hills  through the Wearing Gorge.  

I cannot remember which creek it was. More than likely it was Wearing  Creek as we drove through the creek bed whilst the gorge. 

We were returning to  Hawker via Blinman after  we had been 7 days walking in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges. Our  camp, which was  organised by Retire Active SA, was  at  the shearer's quarters  in the old Balcanoona Station --- a one time sheep/pastoral  station. The station homestead is  now  the National Park Head Quarters. 

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We need to speak bluntly today.  

The bushfires in Australia are becoming more common and they are now more severe than they were due to climate change.They have become firestorms. 

This connection is often denied politically by those on the conservative side of politics who spin, dissemble and gaslight.   They say that historically Australia is a land of fire and flood.  Nothing new here. It is just the eternal recurrance of the same. This response represents  a denial of the danger of fire storm and it is a part of the conservatives  doing every thing possible to frustrate climate action.  

But the bushfires of yesterday are now the firestorms of today -- eg., the  fires along the Great Dividing Range  of the Black Summer of 2019-20.   These  fires were far from normal. 

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Over time, this minor weblog has evolved  from being  a Leica snapshot blog into one  about visual poetics in photography. Based on using a 1980s  film Leica rangefinder camera  this  approach  stands in contrast to the Leica being associated with, and traditionally used for,  photojournalism and urban street photography in the 20th century.  Recall black-and-white and Henri  Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank  or Lee Friedlander.  

My  equipment is simple: a hand held  Leica  M4-P camera,  a standard Leica 50mm Summicron lens, a basic handheld lightmeter,  and Kodak Portra 400 ASA film  with  the negatives  processed  in C41 by a commercial lab and then scanned by me using a  little Plustek  Opticfilm 8100 scanner. The post processing, which  is done in Adobe  Lightroom  6, is minimal.  It is basic technology with the construction  of the image is done in camera. 

This image of the Balcanoona shearing shed in  the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in South Australia when  I was there in the winter of 2021,  is an example of my approach.      

Though I struggle  to make poetic images I  often wondered what poetic photography  means,  or refers to.   People usually say that poetics is the opposite of documentary and that it is a  form of  art photography and so  distinct from photojournalism. That doesn't get us very far since  it just identifies a genre of photography that is deemed to be experimental and  outside the constrictions  and the traditional structures of photography. 

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The photo below was made in the early morning in the Balcanoona Creek bed  in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in South Australia in the winter of 2021. The Balcanoona  pastoral Station was acquired by the park in 1982 and is in Adnyamathanha country.  

It was the colours, textures  and light that caught my eye.

I was there for  6  days walking throughout  the Vulkathunha- Gammon Ranges National Park with friends under the auspices of ARPA bushwalkers.  This ARPA  event was known as the Balcanoona Camp,  and we were based  at the old  shearers quarters at Balcanoona Station, which is now the HQ of the national park. This was my  first time with  the ARPA bushwalkers  and  I was a C grade walker.  I wanted to be able to  have some  time to take photos, and to do so whilst walking through the ranges  on the various  hiking trails.  

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This   picture of bark hanging from a branch of a pink gum  was  made on an early morning  poodlewalk with Kayla. The walk  was  along Baum Rd in Waitpinga on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. 

The picture  was made around the same time,  and in the same location,  as this  picture. Both  pictures were made using  an old, hand held,  film Leica rangefinder  camera during the Covid-19 lockdown. The negatives  from the anachronistic, unmetered, mechanical simple   Leica M4-P were scanned using Plutek Opticfilm 8100 scanner,  which is a dedicated 35mm scanner. The scan is a piece of raw material, for later editing in Lightroom. 

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This picture was made early in the morning  whilst walking along Baum Rd in Waitpinga on a poodlewalk with Kayla.

It is  a freeze-frame  of a transient moment   in early spring  that was with a handheld  Leica  M4-P rangefinder and Kodak Portra 400 ASA film.  The picture is an exploration of visual poetics.

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I've been going through  the archives looking for suitable images  (product) to sell  in the forthcoming online corner store on the Thoughtfactory website . I plan to to sell my photobooks and maybe some prints.   I came across the  pictures  below, which were  made whilst I was on  a Mallee Routes photo-camp at Hopetoun in Victoria in 2017. Hopetoun is in the northern part of Victoria's  Wimmera Mallee.  

The Mallee Routes project is currently on hold.

The first 3 years of the  collaborative section  has come to an end and the participants have gone their separate ways.  The next stage is a solo one to make a  future photo-book. The  Covid-19 pandemic then happened with its lockdown on travel outside one's postcode.  My energies shifted to establishing the online Encounters Gallery and kicking it off with making photos for  The Covid-19 exhibition.  Travel restrictions within  South Australia have now  been lifted for travel within the state, but the SA border remains closed to Victoria. 

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This picture was made whilst I was on a phototrip for the Mallee Routes project.  I stayed at Tanunda with the people walking  the Lavender Trail and travelled into the Murray Mallee each day. This road trip  was a little break from working on the aesthetic essay for the  Adelaide Art Photographers 1970-2000  book for Moon Arrow Press. 

I spent a lot of time driving across  to the Murray mallee on the eastern side of theRiver Murray, as well as  between Cambria and Sedan. I was trying to trace the old railway line from Sedan to Cambria. This is the railway siding at Sedan:  

 I read somewhere on my iPhone on the trip that camera sales  keep on shrinking or that the industry is in  transition, even though people are increasingly relying on imaging for stories in their  daily life.   The smartphone  with its touch screen has disrupted and transformed the entire photographic industry.  The iPhone vs Google Pixel vs Samsung is a  marketing battle,  much of which  centres on the camera, in-camera processing  and  computational photography. One consequence of this  disruption is   that entry-level APS-C style cameras (point and shoot) are  on their  way out.  That shifts the emphasis  to  the higher end or top shelf  full frame market. 

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I visited Whakaari/White Island  in the Bay of Plenty,  prior to attending Photobook/NZ  in Wellington in 2018. 

Suzanne and I were on a weeks holiday in the North Island,  which included exploring the GeoThermal Highway.  White Island was where we started the exploration. After the holiday  Suzanne then went on to  walk the Grand Traverse  in the South Island,  whilst I stayed in an Air BnB in  the Te Aro Valley  in  Wellington. I spend the  week walking  and photographing around the city for the Reconnections project.    

I could only go to White Island in a party  organised by the local  tourist operators at Whakatane.  I was lucky to make  it to island,   due to a cyclone that had swept across this part of the island a couple of weeks earlier.  It   flooded  the Whakatane River,  littered the mouth of the river  with  the trunks and branches  of trees upstream,  and made the swells around the island too dangerous  for the boats to  land. 

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